Reading through those articles posted and the comments of others on this thread, here are my thoughts on the situation..
The USA 2021 RLWC bid is nothing more than a pipe dream.
Off the back of the success of the 2013 RLWC (which included the favourable media coverage, high tv ratings on BBC and public interest, especially in the semi-final double header at Wembley and final at Old Trafford), 99.9% likely the England 2021 bid will prevail, considering the 2021 tournament will be expanding to a 16 team, 31 game, 4x4 group format.
Realistically, assuming the RLWC alternates between hemispheres (2021 in NH, 2025 in SH, 2029 in NH etc.), 2029 is the earliest that I could see America hosting the RLWC. 99.9% likely UK gets 2021 and Australia/NZ gets the 2025 tournament. This gives America a bit more than a decade to grow, expand and establish the game over there at the grassroots level. At the moment, the so-called RL playing areas are predominantly on the East Coast. The reputation of RL in America is nowhere near big enough to be hosting international RL's marquee tournament in 5 years time, especially going head-to-head against the NFL/College Football/NBA/World Series Baseball/NHL at the time Jason Moore is suggesting. Hosting the RLWC at any other time of the year is not a possibility as the NRL/ESL won't budge. It's going to be a financial recipe for disaster for the RLIF, and could set international RL back many years like the 2000 RLWC did.
Regarding the grandiose ambitions to play matches at NFL stadiums, if Jason Moore had actually done his research, he'd realise that the smallest NFL venue (in Oakland) seats about 56k, which is larger than the largest venue (Suncorp) used in next year's RLWC (52.5k). Even for a marque match such as a semi-final, where does he think those 56k people in a non-RL area are going to come from outside of expats and fans of those competing nations? This is not the Rugby World Cup, where 89k turned up for an Ireland/Romania match at Wembley. Although international RU is far bigger than international RL with crowds attending theWorld Cup and the IRU has millions more dollars to throw around compared to the RLIF, since their first World Cup in 1987, it will still have taken the IRU 32 years to take their marquee event outside of RU-heartland/top tier rugby nation when the 2019 RWC is held in Japan. Even the ICC have not primarily hosted a Cricket World Cup outside of test playing nations since their first World Cup in 1975, and that trend will continue until at least 2023 when India hosts it and it still looks like continuing whilst the World T20 tournament also remains hosted by test playing nations.
Until 2029, more regular test matches in America involving the Tomahawks, more pre-season matches involving NRL or ESL sides played there, and smaller tournaments such as hosting a World 9's tournament are an absolute must as part of the process of growing the game there. It would be good if Tomahawks could make the Q/Fs again next year, but I don't have much hope in that happening given they are allocated in the same group as Fiji, and only one team can go through.
